Featuring The COT's guest and resident artists, UpClose Chamber Music Series is the essence of ensemble playing. With performances at CURRENT Studio in Chapel Hill, this dynamic and interactive series brings audiences even closer to the music and its performers. All 2025-26 UpClose events are presented in partnership with Carolina Performing Arts.
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PAST EVENT
The Balourdet Quartet
& Andrea Moore
Thursday, October 16 | 7:30pm
CURRENT Studio
Soprano (and hometown favorite!) Andrea Moore joins the Balourdet Quartet for a program that pairs powerful vocal works by Ottorino Respighi and Caroline Shaw with Johannes Brahms’ last great string quartet.
Program:
Brahms - String Quartet No.3
Respighi - Il Tramonto
Shaw - And So
PAST EVENT
The Durham Fellows with Jennifer Curtis, violin &
Jeannette Fang, piano
Saturday, November 8 | 7:30PM
CURRENT Studio
The COT’s Durham Fellows take the stage with violinist Jennifer Curtis and pianist Jeannette Fang for Ernest Chausson’s epic Concerto for Violin, Piano, and String Quartet.
Program:
Haydn - String Quartet Op.76 No.1 in G Major
Montgomery - Strum
Chausson - Concerto for Violin, Piano, and String Quartet
Alex Fiterstein, clarinet &
Ieva Jokubaviciute, piano
Sunday, December 7 | 7:30PM
CURRENT Studio
You haven’t heard the clarinet until you’ve heard it played by COT favorite Alexander Fiterstein! Experience him like never before as he makes his UpClose debut with pianist Ieva Jokubaviciute.
Program:
Bernstein - Sonata
Fiterstein - Solo
Weber - Grand Duo
Mozart - Clarinet Quintet
The Balourdet Quartet & Melinda Lee Masur
Sunday, January 4 | 7:30PM
CURRENT Studio
What do Eleanor Alberga, Amy Beach, Kyle Brenn, and Frank Martin have in common? They are four composers that you have probably never heard of, but are sure to become your new favorites after this concert by the Balourdet Quartet.
Program:
Alberga - String Quartet No. 2
Beach - String Quartet in One Movement
Brenn - Blossoming Like Crazy
Martin - Piano Quintet
The Verona Quartet &
Ray Dooley, actor
Sunday, February 8 | 7:30PM
CURRENT Studio
To be or not to be?! Playmakers legend Ray Dooley joins forces with the Verona Quartet to present Shakespeare’s Hamlet through the musical lenses of Beethoven, Schubert, and Mendelssohn.
Program:
Shakespeare, Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Schubert
The Balourdet Quartet
Saturday, April 25 | 7:30PM
CURRENT Studio
The Balourdet Quartet presents Steve Reich’s groundbreaking work that blends recorded speech, train sounds, and live instruments. They then ship us off to Italy, with Tchaikovsky’s monumental Souvenir de Florence.
Program:
Schubert - Quartettsatz (9')
Reich - Different Trains (30’)
Tchaikovsky - Souvenir de Florence (30’) - Durham Fellows
The Durham Fellows
& Jordan Bak, viola
Saturday, May 30 | 7:30PM
CURRENT Studio
